Design a high-throughput Order Processing System
Last updated: April 5, 2026
Quick Overview
Design a high-throughput order processing system that handles millions of requests. Discuss trade-offs in consistency, availability, and performance.
Salesforce
April 5, 202695
5
909 solved
Design a high-throughput order processing system that handles millions of requests. Discuss trade-offs in consistency, availability, and performance.
Software engineering fundamentals questions at Salesforce test your understanding of core CS concepts and their practical application. This Technical Screen question evaluates how you apply engineering principles to build maintainable, scalable software.
What the Interviewer Expects
- Explain the concept clearly with a practical example
- Discuss when and why to apply this principle
- Identify common mistakes and anti-patterns
- Compare with alternative approaches
Key Topics to Cover
How to Approach This
- Apply SOLID principles. Single Responsibility makes code testable, Open/Closed makes it extensible.
- Choose data structures based on access patterns, not familiarity.
- Prefer immutable data and message passing over shared mutable state for concurrency.
- Design APIs with RESTful conventions, versioning, meaningful errors, and pagination from day one.
Possible Follow-up Questions
- How would you measure the performance of this component in production?
- What testing strategy would you use for this component?
- What are the security implications of this design?
- How would this design change if the team size doubled?
Practice a Similar Problem on Codemia
Solve a related problem with our interactive workspace, get AI feedback, and view detailed solutions.
Solve on CodemiaSample Answer
Core Design Principles
For the Order Processing System at Salesforce, the key design principles to consider are:
- Single Responsibility Principle (SRP): Each component of the system should have one reason to change. ...
Architecture
A microservices architecture is best suited for the order processing system to handle millions of requests efficiently. Each microservice can be responsible for a specific function:
- **Order Service...